WTCC News
WTCC Valencia Race Report
By
Oct 2, 2005, 13:42

Race 1

At their home race, SEAT Sport had two drivers celebrating on the podium. With a lights-to-flag lead, Jordi Gené claimed his first win of the season with team-mate Peter Terting crossing the line 3rd. The two SEAT León cars were divided by Dirk Müller who jumped back to the championship lead by just two points.

At the start, Dirk sped ahead of Terting but was forced wide and therefore remained in 3rd position. In the first corner, Huff and Farfus collided which left the 4th placed Chevrolet stranded in the gravel and the Alfa Romeo rejoining at the back after a visit to the pits. Also on the first lap, Giovanardi was chasing the Müllers with García close behind. Giovanardi made a move on the inside of Jörg and the German went wide and dropped four places to 8th. Lap 2 saw Funke and Hennerici involved in an incident which resulted in both of them being towed out of the gravel. In the next lap Jörg began to work his way through the field again as he overtook Larini. Meanwhile, Terting was being hunted by Dirk for 2nd position. Over the next three laps Terting had to defend extremely hard but Dirk successfully overtook the SEAT on lap 6. Fellow BMW Team Deutschland driver, Jörg, overtook Tarquini with Larini and García still close behind. Priaulx moved up to 4th on lap 9 after passing Giovanardi, and he held the position determinedly. As the cars crossed the line into lap 10, there was an extremely tight battle between Jörg and Giovanardi. The fight ensued but it was Jörg who crossed the chequered flag one position ahead of the Alfa man to claim 5th. On lap 10 Tarquini, Larini, García and Zanardi were bumper to bumper. Larini overtook Tarquini for 7th. The latter then pushed García off the track and obtained a drive 30-second penalty after the race which demoted him to 16th. Marc Carol had a fantastic 10th place result on his first appearance in the FIA WTCC. Neither of the Ford Hotfiel sport drivers finished after being involved in separate incidents.

De Micheli of JAS Motorsport was the winner of the independent’s race. After the implementation of Tarquini’s penalty, he was 11th overall. Zanardi finished 8th winning pole for Race 2.

Race 2

Jörg Müller was victorious in the second race of the day as he cruised across the finish line over seven seconds ahead of the rest. Behind him though was a spectacular fight. Fabrizio Giovanardi, Andy Priaulx and Dirk Müller all are in contention for the drivers’ title and caused nail biting moments for much of the race. They finished in the order with less than one second separating them.

Alessandro Zanardi began from pole with Nicola Larini also on the front row. Off the line Larini was passed by several drivers. Giovanardi overtook Priaulx, who was then involved in some contact with Dirk and dropped to 6th after loosing places to Terting and Larini. Jörg stormed through and by the end of lap 1 he had jumped from 4th to 1st where he remained. In lap 2 Dirk overtook Zanardi for 3rd. De Micheli was fighting among the works drivers in lap 3 as he challenged Priaulx for 5th but then the Italian independent was involved in two incidents with Terting and Gené. De Micheli obtained a drive-through penalty for clashing with the German. On lap 5 action stepped up a gear as Giovanardi overtook Dirk for 2nd. While they battled, Priaulx had overtaken Zanardi and caught up on the pair. Furthermore, over the subsequent laps, García had also managed to latch on to the front pack. On lap 8 Dirk tapped Giovanardi and temporarily lost control of the rear of his car. This allowed Priaulx to slot into 3rd and the Briton then had Giovanardi in his sights. Priaulx made a move for 2nd but in fact lost out as Dirk slipped past him on the inside. The positions did not remain this way for long however. Lap 8 saw Dirk try to push past Giovanardi but this was not to be, he was out-braked by Priaulx and then passed by García. García was swiftly demoted back to 5th on the next lap though, as Dirk once again focused on overtaking the BMW Team UK car. The final two laps provided a spectacular show but the top four positions remained. Zanardi finished ahead of García in 5th. Marc Carol put in another impressive performance. The young Spaniard finished as the best SEAT driver as well as in the points after crossing the line 8th. Right behind him was Tomas Engström who claimed the independent win ahead of Cirň by 0.225 of a second. Huff and Menu did not start the race after damage obtained in race 1 and Larini was unable to finish the 2nd race for Chevrolet due to an electrical problem. Klenke’s Ford was also not repairable for the start of Race 2 but Funke finished 18th.

Driver Quotes

Jordi GENÉ – 1st in Race 1 and 14th in Race 2
“This is the happiest day of my life. The first race was amazing but it actually felt longer than a 24 hour endurance race because I was so nervous about making mistakes or something going wrong. The car is fantastic and for it to win a race on just its third outing is great. The success is definitely due to SEAT’s hard work and we should be proud. The only thing we need to work on is the straight line speed, this is why in the second race it was difficult to fight for the positions. The car was as quick as it was in the first race but I couldn’t overtake anyone because it was too much of a risk.”

Jörg MÜLLER – 5th in Race 1 and 1st in Race 2
“This is my third win of the season and I am very happy with it. To be honest it was quite an easy race once I was in the lead but. In the first race I was hit at the start and was concerned about my steering which set me back. Then I made a mistake and lost more places. I started to fight back to get in the points and had a great battle with Giovanardi. It was exactly as the WTCC should be so I was happy with my race 1 result as well.”

Dirk MÜLLER – 5th in Race 1 and 4th in Race 2
“I got the championship lead back after the first race and that made me really happy. I will arrive in Macau in the lead and that gives me confidence. Last year I was 12 points ahead and I lost it but this year I have a 1 point lead and I will get it.”

Andy PRIAULX – 4th in Race 1 and 3rd in Race 2
“It’s really hard to win championships so I had to fight hard in Race 2. Today was really tough and I enjoyed it immensely. Fabrizio (Giovanardi) was defending really well and we had two clean races. I am pleased to have finished both races. I don’t feel any pressure because I have already won one championship so we will wait and see what happens in Macau.”

Fabrizio GIOVANARDI – 6th in Race 1 and 2nd in Race 2
“It was not easy to keep the BMWs behind but I knew I had to if I wanted to remain in the title fight. Today was hard but it was my last chance to get some more championship points so I said ‘it’s now or never’. I’m happy because I am pleased with my performance and I enjoyed today very much. I raced in Macau in 1988 but of course that doesn’t count for much. I hope to learn the circuit fast so I can be in contention until the very end.”

Peter TERTING – 3rd in Race 1 and 12th in Race 2
“This weekend has been very good for SEAT and it was great that I could contribute to our success. It was my first race in the new car so the podium was extra special. The second race was disappointing because I was fighting hard for 6th when I was hit by somebody and that was the end of the race for me.”

© Copyright 2002 Speed Arena